


Parasomnia

by caimani



Category: Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Demigods, Gen, Monsters, Quests
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 10:43:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17865761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Geoff wasn't the type of demigod who goes on quests. Very few at Camp Enchanted Rock went on quests, actually. But when Geoff's father Hypnos told him about a strange place where people fall asleep and didn't wake up again, he and his friends all set out to figure out what was happening. They could handle whatever monsters they came across, right?





	1. Visions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [keithundead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/keithundead/gifts).



> based on keith's demigod parx au, with son of hypnos geoff, son of iris awsten, son of demeter otto, and son of minerva jawn
> 
> I was posting this on tumblr, but their new text block limit means Im gonna have to continue it on here

Usually, mornings at Camp Enchanted Rock went something like this:

Awsten would be up at the crack of dawn doing whatever it was he did when normal people were sleeping. Running around in the misty air, making rainbows over the creek that ran past their cabin. Sometimes making enough noise to wake up Jawn, much to his annoyance.

Jawn and Otto would wake up about half an hour before breakfast started. Otto would be cheerily awake, and Jawn would still be blinking sleep out of his eyes. Geoff would wake up last— usually before they left for the common campwide breakfast— and would stumble sleepily to the common area located about a half a mile from their cabin.

This morning was different. It wasn’t even what Jawn would consider morning when he was shaken awake. Not by Awsten this time, but by Geoff.

“Hey,” Geoff said.

Jawn squinted at him in confusion, then he looked from side to side to see if some kind of apocalypse had started. The cabin around them was still fairly dark, but Awsten was nowhere to be seen. So… it was early morning? And Geoff was awake?

Maybe an apocalypse actually was starting.

“What,” Jawn said.

“I had a dream,” Geoff said. Jawn must have made a face, because he quickly added, “I mean a vision. From my dad. One of those dreams.”

Oh. Jawn sat up, widening his eyes and blinking to force himself to pay attention. “What did he say?”

Geoff pressed his lips together and looked to the side. “It’s, uh, I think he gave me a quest.”

Jawn nodded slowly as that sunk into his brain. A… a quest. Okay. That wasn’t something the four of them normally got. Especially not once they all moved to Camp Enchanted Rock. Awsten and Geoff had each been given a few small quests from their godly parents, but that hadn’t happened for at least a year.

“What’s the quest?” Jawn said. He paused. “Actually, wait, I’m gonna wake up Otto so you can tell all of us.”

Geoff nodded. “I’ll get Awsten,” he said.

Once Geoff had left the cabin, Jawn rubbed at his face. It was only the second week of June. He had been looking forward to a calm summer of music and photography and art. Hopefully this quest wouldn’t take too long and they could get back to the safety of Camp Enchanted Rock quickly.

He climbed out of his bed and went to shake Otto awake. “Hey,” he said. “Geoff’s dad has a quest for him. C’mon.”

Otto stretched and yawned. “Huh?”

“Quest.”

“Who?”

“Probably all of us,” Jawn said, shaking Otto’s shoulder again so he wouldn’t go back to sleep. “Geoff’s going to tell us once he brings Awsten back.”

When Geoff finally returned with Awsten, the sun was just rising over the horizon. They all sat on the front porch of the cabin, except for Otto, who sat on the grass where flowers bloomed around him.

“So I was dreaming, and it was in this weird sorta ghost town,” Geoff started. “Like those old mining towns out west? With tumbleweeds and— yeah, so I was like— where is this place? Cause I don’t normally dream of creepy places like that. And then my dad was there and there were these skeletons but they felt like they were asleep—”

“You sure this isn’t just you having like a fever dream?” Awsten interrupted, reaching out to poke Geoff on his forehead.

“No! He talked to me!” Geoff said. “He said the town is… weird. Like, it’s been a ghost town for years, but recently, he’s been feeling people falling asleep in there again. And not waking up.”

Jawn tensed. “Can’t your dad, like, wake them up?”

Geoff shrugged and shook his head. “He said he doesn’t know what’s causing them to fall asleep. He can give them good dreams but he can’t exactly talk to them in their dreams. He can’t force them to wake up either. And they’re all dying in their sleep.” Geoff shuddered.

“What are we supposed to do?” Otto asked cautiously. “Go there and—”

“If it’s the effect of a monster or magic or something, I can resist that,” Geoff said. “Probably all of us can.”

“Probably,” Awsten echoed under his breath.

“We go there, we can figure out what’s happening and stop it so more people don’t get hurt.” Geoff said.

“Okay…” Jawn said. Investigate a ghost town that might be under a sleeping curse and possibly have to fight some evil thing causing it? It wasn’t the most intimidating quest he had heard of. If this ghost town had only garnered the attention of Hypnos, it probably wasn’t anything too dangerous. “Sounds… okay, yeah. Did he say all of us should go?”

“Well, me and Otto _have_ to go,” Awsten said. “You two skip out on sparring classes so you’re hopeless in a fight—”

“They’re not mandatory—” Geoff protested.

“—And we’ve got nothing else going on!” Awsten said. He stood up and raced back into the cabin, emerging again with his sword sheathed at his side. “Alright, so breakfast, then we get some questing stuff and go!”

Jawn stood up too. “I can pick up some medicine and things from the health center after breakfast,” he said. And he had his spear and his dagger somewhere in the cabin. He went to get those and a bag for the medical gear and his spare clothes. He stopped and looked longingly at his camera in its case. On impulse, he added that to the bag as well. They’d be traveling, and hopefully some parts of the journey would be free of monsters.

When he shut the door of the cabin behind him, Otto was talking.

“—it’ll only be like twenty minutes,” he was saying to Geoff. “Just gotta swing by my house to pick it up. I left it ‘cause I didn’t think I’d need it.”

“Yeah, that sounds fine,” Geoff said.

“You ready?” Awsten said, grabbing Jawn’s hand.

“Oh no,” Geoff said, reaching out to hold Awsten’s shoulder. Otto grabbed Geoff’s hand.

The rainbow bridge materialized under their feet, shooting them forwards and into the air. Jawn reached out to hold onto Awsten more securely as they flew above the campgrounds. They passed over a few other groups of campers, each making their way to breakfast in their own forms of transportation. Some on the backs of glowing golden deer, some on flying carpets, some sitting in a puffy little cloud. And the usual group chugging along on their pirate ship with caterpillar tracks.

Awsten’s rainbow bridge started arching downwards as the dining hall came into view past the trees and hills. The common area of Camp Enchanted Rock was most like the terrain of the actual landscape: warm and sunny and absolutely picturesque. It contained the dining hall, the health center, and a collection of indoor and outdoor classrooms for anything from swordfighting and ancient art to first aid and animal care.

“Say goodbye to the camp!” Awsten said as they rapidly approached the ground.

“That sounds ominous,” Otto said with a laugh.

“It’s not going to be that long of a quest!” Geoff said. “I don’t think so anyway.”

Jawn sighed. The rainbow dropped them down on the ground a short distance from the dining hall. He glanced behind him as the rainbow disappeared. The rest of the camp was bright with the light of the morning sun. It looked so peaceful.

He was already looking forward to coming back here once they had defeated whatever thing was causing Geoff’s ghost town problem.


	2. Consciousness

The farm was a safe place. Otto knew that. There had only been a handful of monster attacks the whole time he and his dad had been living there, and all of those had been dealt with easily. The remoteness of the farm (and probably also the number of animals that confused the monsters’ senses of smell) made it a good place for a demigod kid to grow up. Like a safe little bubble.

That still didn’t mean Otto felt comfortable having Awsten, Jawn, and Geoff over at his home. Four demigods in one place felt like they were tempting the Fates. Something was going to go wrong, he could just feel it.

His dad didn’t seem to get it. From the moment Otto arrived with the other three behind him, his dad had been perfectly hospitable. Having them all sit down for some lunch, asking them what they’d been up to during the summer. All Otto had wanted to do was grab his stuff for the quest and leave.

Otto tapped his fingers restlessly on the table, still waiting for his dad to come out of the kitchen with lunch. Across from him, Geoff gave him an apologetic smile.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Those are _horses_!” Awsten exclaimed, craning his neck to see out the large bay window overlooking the back of the farm. “Jawn, you see em?”

“I saw them when we were coming in,” Jawn said, although he too was looking at all the animals that could be seen out the window. “Otto, how many do you have?”

Otto dropped his head down onto the table and groaned.

“Do you have any pegasi?” Jawn asked.

“No,” Otto said into the surface of the table. “They’re all normal animals.”

Before Awsten and Jawn could bombard him with more questions, he quickly got up and left the table. In the kitchen, his dad was still cooking way more food than they really needed for a simple lunch. Otto knew he should have insisted on staying and helping. They could have been out of the farm ten minutes ago.

“Dad,” he started.

“Go and sit back down, I’ve got this,” his dad said, popping the oven open a bit to check on something.

“We can’t stay too long,” Otto said. “The… the quest and all. It’s important.” It really wasn’t, but his dad didn’t need to know.

He felt bad as soon as he said it, because his dad visibly deflated for a moment. Then he turned around and caught Otto in a hug.

“I know, I’m sorry,” he said. “I just want to help. I can’t do… the kind of stuff you do, but— I’ll be done in another ten minutes, alright? Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” Otto said. He was glad that his face was squashed into his dad’s shoulder, because his eyes were suddenly burning a little. He held his dad tight for a few seconds, then let him go once he was sure he could keep an easy smile on his face. “I’m, uh, I’m gonna take them out to see the horses. They’ve been hanging around weird stuff for so long, they forget there’s normal animals in the real world.”

His dad laughed. “Yeah, you do that.”

“We’ll be back in here in ten minutes,” Otto promised.

When Otto informed Awsten, Jawn, and Geoff that they could go out and see the animals, they almost left him in the dust as they ran out to explore. Otto had to run to keep up with the three of them.

“Never saw Geoff move that fast,” he muttered to himself as he followed them to the horse pasture. The horses looked up as he approached, and they started towards the fence where Otto’s friends were crowded. He stood next to them at the fence and stuck out his hand for Cloudy to nuzzle her warm fuzzy face into. Behind the mare, Psyche was bouncing her head and prancing at the sight of Otto.

“So it’s not just plants that love you,” Awsten said.

“What, are you jealous?” Jawn said. He was reaching out to pet Cloudy’s neck.

“I don’t need animals to love me, I have the love and appreciation of everyone back at camp,” Awsten huffed.

“Uh huh,” Jawn said.

Geoff climbed up onto the fence to look at the other two horses on their way over. Then he jumped back down. “There’s something out there,” he said in a serious tone. “That’s… that’s not one of your animals.”

Otto’s stomach dropped. He looked past Cloudy and Psyche, past the other horses.

The thing was large— much bigger than the horses. Something dark with wings and a big tail that thrashed behind it— oh fuck, that was a manticore. Otto’s hand clenched around the handle of his knife.

“Try and keep it away from the horses!” he yelled. He climbed up onto the fence and jumped down into the pasture, hitting the ground running.

His blood was already rushing in his ears. Fuck, fuck, fuck, this was bad. If something this big had already found them, then they needed to leave as quickly as possible. Forget lunch. The four of them were danger magnets, and there was too much at that farm that Otto loved and didn’t want to lose.

The manticore had its eyes set on Otto as the distance between them rapidly shrunk. It reared up, extending its claws and roaring. Otto ducked nimbly beneath the claws and struck at the manticore’s underside before twisting and sprinting aside.

The manticore roared angrily. Its barbed tail lashed out towards Otto. Otto slashed at it with the knife, but it didn’t have the effect he was hoping for. The knife barely stopped the tail’s attack, and it knocked Otto off balance. He stumbled backwards.

Then, Awsten was on the manticore’s other side, cutting at the monster’s wings with his sword.

“You trying to get yourself killed?” Awsten shouted. If he said anything after that, Otto missed it because the manticore roared loudly again and turned its focus on Awsten.

Otto glanced back at the now-distant fence. Geoff had found and opened the gate for the horses to run for the barn. Otto felt a wave of relief knowing they would be safe. Meanwhile, Jawn was on his way to the fight, his spear in hand.

The roaring of the manticore brought his attention back to the fight.

“Yeah, shut the fuck up!” Awsten said. It seemed like he was doing pretty well against the monster’s claws and teeth. “Hold still so I can kill you!”

The manticore’s tail swung up again, this time aiming for Awsten. Otto took advantage of the distraction and slashed at the base of the monster’s tail with all the strength he could muster. His blade sliced straight through.

 _Thank you again for this knife, Mom,_ Otto thought to himself, grinning as the monster howled in pain. It turned on Otto, giving Awsten an opening to stab at it. Awsten’s sword flashed with rainbow light as it pierced into the manticore.

The manticore let out another angry roar before it dissolved into dust. Otto shook slightly with the adrenaline still running through him. He looked at Awsten, who was sheathing his sword, to Jawn, who had just arrived. Jawn lowered his spear and looked a little lost for words for a moment.

“Um,” Jawn said. “Otto… I think we should probably leave soon.”

Yeah.

Otto looked back at the house in the distance. His heart felt tight as he thought about his dad, probably still in the kitchen making lunch.

“Sorry, dad,” he whispered. Then he raised his arm and waved for Geoff to come follow them. Out of the pasture, out of the farm. To begin their quest.


	3. Sleepwalking (part 1)

“Did you actually get what you needed?” Awsten asked Otto.

It had been at least an hour since they left the farm. They had been walking in relative silence, since everyone was hyperaware of how their departure had been less than ideal. Awsten had been able to take them on one rainbow bridge early in their journey, but there hadn’t been enough moisture in the air since then to make any more. Which meant they had been on foot, under the summer sun, in the middle of Texas, for at least an hour.

“Yeah, I got it,” Otto said. “I put it in Jawn’s bag.”

“What? When?” Awsten stopped to turn and look at Jawn.

Jawn gave Awsten a look. “Probably when you were talking with Otto’s dad.” He opened his bag and took out something about the size of a lunch box. No, it was a lunch box. Jawn handed it to Otto.

“Is that a lunch box?” Geoff said. “I thought your dad—”

“My mom gave this to me,” Otto said. He unzipped the zipper holding it shut and held it open for them all to see.

Inside, the box was packed with sandwiches, fruit, snacks, juice… enough for the four of them to all eat and be full. Awsten gaped at it.

“Are you telling me you’ve had food in that thing the whole time?” he said.

“No!” Otto said. “I mean… maybe? It’s got a mind of its own. It puts whatever food it thinks I need inside.”

“But… there was a good chance that this thing had food,” Jawn said.

“Yeah, it always does,” Otto said.

Awsten struggled to resist the urge to yell at Otto for keeping lunch from them. Okay, no that wasn’t going to happen. “You’ve been keeping lunch from us!” he yelled. “I wasn’t gonna say anything because I felt bad for you! No more nice Awsten from now on!”

Otto rolled his eyes. “Gee, thanks. You wanna sit down right here and eat?”

It was kind of a shitty place for lunch, but they were all pretty hungry and none of them wanted to keep walking just to find a place out of the sun. The food was amazing, and as they ate, Awsten kept opening and closing the lunch box to see if it would give him the exact brand that he was thinking of. Eventually it did. Fucking nice.

They started walking again, which kinda sucked, but there wasn’t really a better way to travel to the mystery ghost town in the middle of the desert somewhere. As they kept moving, Awsten looked up at the sky and wondered briefly if his mom was watching out for him.

Then he wondered if she was sending those updates she promised to send to his human mom. He smiled, just in case she was showing her an image of where he was. Man, seeing Otto visit his dad was making Awsten miss her so bad. Next time they found a spring or something, he was definitely calling his mom.

The day passed slowly, uneventfully. The tension from the farm was soon gone, replaced by their usual comfortable camaraderie. Jawn pressed Otto for stories about growing up on a farm, and Otto entertained them for a while talking about all the ridiculous ways the animals had gotten stuck in various places and positions over the years.

“Must be nice, being a child of Demeter on a farm,” Geoff said.

Otto shrugged and smiled. “I mean, we never had a bad year. It was cool too, once I could start actually doing things. Making things grow and helping the animals out and all.”

“Hey, since you’re an actual cowboy, can you say ‘yeehaw’?” Awsten said.

Otto shoved at him. “Shut up.”

“YEEHAW!” Awsten yelled. “Ah’m Farmer Otto!”

“Gods, you’re the worst,” Otto laughed.

Quite unfortunately, the teasing was cut short by a dark cloud in the distance that was rapidly approaching them. Awsten drew his sword and stood in front of Geoff, useless and weaponless. He narrowed his eyes as he saw what was coming for them.

Stymphalian birds.

It looked like there were only half a dozen of them, but any number of those birds was bad news. Their sharp beaks gleamed in the late afternoon sun as they drew nearer to the group of demigods. Awsten winced, remembering his past encounters with those birds. He still had the scars.

“Stay together!” Awsten said, looking behind him at Otto and Jawn, who were also prepped for fighting. Jawn had his spear in his hands and was eyeing the birds with grim determination. Otto had his hunting knife.

Awsten spared a second to wish they had some kind of longer ranged weapon. For now, Jawn’s spear would have to do. And of course, he and Otto would be able to handle the birds once they were close enough.

The birds shrieked as they started swooping down towards Awsten. He couldn’t help his flinch. Because of it, his first swing with his sword went off course and missed his target. His mind filled with panic as the shrieks of the birds sounded loud in his ear—

But then someone was shoving him back, into Geoff’s chest. Jawn’s spear was a blur in Awsten’s vision as it sliced straight through two of the birds at once, dissolving them into dust.

“You okay?” Geoff said, helping Awsten to regain his footing.

“I’m fucking fine,” Awsten huffed. He pushed away from Geoff and concentrated on aiming at one of the evil little monsters. He swung his sword with a little more force than necessary, turning the bird into dust.

Okay, yeah he was feeling better now. Awsten checked on Otto, who wasn’t having much luck reaching the birds, but at least he wasn’t hurt. The remaining three birds flew up out of reach, shrieking at the demigods.

Awsten squinted up at the birds, nearly blinding his eyes with the direct bright sunlight. The birds split up, and for a moment, it looked like each of them were flying at one of the three armed demigods.

Until suddenly they veered off course and headed straight for Geoff. Two of them sent a small shower of sharp needlelike feathers shooting at Geoff.

“Oh shit,” Geoff said, trying to jump out of the way. He didn’t manage to miss all of the feathers though, and cried out in pain as they sliced his left arm.

“Fuck no!” Awsten yelled, swinging his sword right as Otto and Jawn both closed in to guard Geoff with their own weapons.

The three remaining birds burst into dust all at the same time.

Awsten was shaking. He looked around them, fearing that there was another swarm of the awful birds on their way. He didn’t see anything, but he still felt dangerously exposed out here in the open.

“Fuck, Geoff, how bad is it?” Jawn was saying behind him, carefully reaching out to hold Geoff’s arm.

Geoff winced and gasped as he moved his arm. There were eight of those horrible little feathers stuck in his arm. Awsten couldn’t stand looking at them. His old scars were flaring with phantom pain. He looked back at the skies. No birds, they were going to be okay.

“Okay, do you wanna sit down while I get these out?” Jawn said gently.

“We need to get out of the open,” Awsten said, sheathing his sword and peering ahead of them, hoping there was some kind of shelter coming up in their journey. Somewhere where they could take care of Geoff and maybe even rest for the night. Evening was coming soon.

“Awsten…” Otto began.

Awsten shook his head. “Otto, can you check your lunch box? See if there’s a bottle of water in there. I’m gonna make a bridge to get us somewhere safer.”

He looked at Otto, hoping to convey how he was feeling without words. This really wasn’t the best time to dig into his past with those particular monsters, just for the sake of explaining his desire to get the fuck away. Otto looked like he wanted to ask questions, but he was silent for a moment. Then he sighed and went over to Jawn to get the lunch box out of the bag.

“Geoff, are you gonna be okay for a minute?” Otto asked.

“Yeah,” Geoff said, although his voice was strained. Awsten still refused to look at him and the feathers in his arm.

Geoff was going to be fine. Eight feathers wasn’t that bad. Compared to— no, Awsten wasn’t going to think about that.

Otto pressed a water bottle into Awsten’s hand. Not that much, but it would have to be enough.

“Alright,” he said. He unscrewed the cap and reached out to grab Otto’s hand. “You all holding on?”

“Yeah,” Otto said after a second.

Awsten sprayed the water in the air in front of him and concentrated his power. The rainbow materialized at his feet. Awsten poured as much power as he could into the rainbow as it grew and pulled them off the ground, into the air. Higher, higher, high above the Texas landscape. Awsten fought back the momentary wave of vertigo and focused on making the bridge as long as he could.

Geoff gasped in pain again behind him, and Awsten flinched again, this time in guilt. He kept the rainbow bridge going, however, taking the demigods far away from the place where the birds attacked them.

The rainbow eventually had to drop to the ground again, and Awsten was relieved when he saw it was going to deposit them in a place full of shrubs and trees and piles of rocks that would offer shelter for the night.

Awsten turned as the rainbow ended so he could help catch Geoff before they all hit the ground. Unintentionally, as they landed on solid ground again, Awsten looked at Geoff’s arm. It was already soaked with blood. Fuck.

Geoff noticed Awsten staring in horror and he offered him a weak smile. “S’not that bad. Hey. Hey, Awsten. Nice rainbow road. Should play Mario Kart when we get back.”

Awsten groaned. “Jawn, better fix him up fast, he’s turning into a stupid gamer again.”

Otto chuckled as they helped ease Geoff down so he was lying against a nice smooth-looking rock. “I’ll kick your ass in Mario Kart when we get back, Geoff,” he said.

“Ha,” Geoff laughed. “No, you don’t.”

Jawn opened his bag of medical supplies and reached for the feathers still sticking out of Geoff’s bloody arm. “Alright, Geoff, don’t move too much.”

“Okay, I’m not going to be any help here,” Awsten announced loudly, walking away. “I’ll, um, set up camp, alright? See ya! I’m gonna get some, um, firewood!” And then he was practically running away.

He wasn’t far enough away when he heard Geoff yell in pain as Jawn started taking out the feathers.


	4. Sleepwalking (part 2)

Early the next morning when Awsten woke up, there was just enough moisture in the air that he thought he would be able to construct enough rainbows to get them the hell out of Stymphalian bird territory. He shook the others awake, feeling a new wave of guilt when he unthinkingly touched Geoff’s bandaged arm. 

Geoff… Geoff should be better soon. Awsten knew— those feathers were the worst, but he would heal. Especially with Jawn taking care of him.

“All aboard the Rainbow Express,” Otto said as everyone grabbed onto Awsten. “Introducing your conductor, engineer, expert in having two moms, and guy who swings that old timey lantern at the back: his name’s Awsten and I’m sorry to say he’s all we could find on such short notice—”

Geoff and Jawn both laughed. Awsten wished there was some way to fly them through the air even faster to make them motion-sick, but unfortunately there was only one speed while taking these rainbow bridges. Soon they touched down and Awsten quickly constructed another rainbow, lifting them up into the sky again. The Texas landscape below them was beautiful, but Awsten didn’t want to spend too much time looking down at it. Monsters could hide anywhere.

“Can you imagine all those people who don’t have a child of Iris on their quest?” Jawn said. “Having to walk the whole time.”

“There’s other forms of transportation,” Awsten said. “Like walking.”

“Pegasi,” Geoff said.

“Cars,” Otto added.

Awsten smiled. “I don’t think people really trust demigods with cars. Remember what happened to Travis’s car last time we were hanging out with him?”

Although… that wasn’t their fault. Some other group of demigods had pissed off the skeletons. And they didn’t really cause that much damage to Travis’s car. Minor accidents that might or might not involve running over a gang of reanimated skeletons were the whole reason spare tires existed.

The bumper though…

But anyway. “My rainbows are way cooler than cars,” Awsten said. “Cars can’t—”

“Whoa, look at that!” Otto said, twisting away from Awsten to point at something to the left.

Awsten turned his head to look. There was something that looked like an old bunker sitting in the middle of the plains. Awsten squinted at it.

“The fuck is that?”

When they landed, both Otto and Geoff let go of Awsten and started walking in the direction of the bunker. Awsten hesitated, glancing at Jawn. “We can still go farther,” he said. “It’s still early enough—”

Jawn looked at Geoff and Otto, then back to Awsten. “Just a couple minutes,” he said, patting Awsten on his shoulder. “It won’t be long to just go and look at it.”

Awsten groaned and rolled his eyes, but Jawn was already leaving him. “This is gonna be a huge waste of time,” he said loudly, so everyone could hear him. “That thing is either going to be empty or full of fucking spiders. Or snakes.”

“Then you can wait outside!” Otto yelled back. “If you’re gonna be a coward about it!”

“I’m not a fucking coward,” Awsten said, walking faster to catch up with Otto and Geoff. “I’m looking out for myself.”

“Whatever, you can hide behind me when we go in,” Otto said.

“I’ll stab you in the back with my sword,” Awsten retorted.

Otto laughed at that.

Up close, the bunker actually gave Awsten the creeps. He stopped a few feet away from the heavy stone door, looking it over with a feeling of dread. There were no windows, no doors besides the one in front of him, and no markings or signs to indicate what might be inside. There wasn’t even a NO TRESPASSING sign, which set off alarms in Awsten’s head when he realized what was out of place.

“I’m not going in there,” he said.

Geoff walked forward. Awsten gritted his teeth and pushed past Geoff to reach for the door.

It opened with a surprisingly small amount of effort. Another thing that felt wrong. Awsten backed away as the air seemed to pull at them. Way too creepy.

“Cool, it wasn’t locked!” Otto says, moving around Awsten to walk inside.

“You’re gonna be the first idiot to die in a horror movie,” Awsten said.

“Uh, I don’t think so? I’d kill the monster in a horror movie,” Otto said.

Jawn walked in next, and Geoff followed, so there was really no choice but for Awsten to go in as well. The bunker was completely empty, apart from some dirt and dead grass from outside. Awsten looked around, expecting to see a massive spider about to eat him alive.

“Oh man, look at this!” Jawn said.

Jawn was looking at a spot on the floor. Awsten walked over, ready to get the fuck out of the place if it turned out to be something creepy like a big dead bug.

It wasn’t a big dead bug. It was an inscription carved onto the stone floor.

“Those… those are hieroglyphics,” Geoff said from beside Awsten.

“I think it’s a name,” Jawn said. He knelt down to brush some dead grass away from the writing. Awsten looked at the floor around the name. There was something about it, almost like—

“Is that a… can that move?” Otto said suddenly, getting down to feel around the edges of the square piece of floor. “Shit, it’s a hidden entrance!”

“To what?” Awsten said, taking a step back.

“To something,” Otto said.

Awsten looked to Geoff. “This doesn’t have anything to do with your quest, Geoff.”

“That’s alright, we can just look,” Geoff said. He got down to help Otto, and Jawn joined them. Suddenly anxious, Awsten looked behind them. Still nothing in the bunker room, and nothing but clear morning sky just outside the door. Awsten had a horrible mental image of the door slamming shut and locking them all inside. Hieroglyphics meant something Egyptian, and the cold empty feeling of this bunker was making Awsten suspect that it was something that might be booby-trapped or cursed.

The stone floor panel slid aside, revealing stairs leading down into the darkness.

And of course Geoff and Otto climbed straight down into there. Awsten hated this, but he followed too, right after Jawn. He drew out his sword and the blade glowed softly with white light.

The stairs led to another door, which pushed open with far too much ease for Awsten’s comfort. This felt way too easy. He didn’t like this at all. Beyond the door was… exactly what Awsten was expecting.

“A tomb…” Jawn whispered with awe. He strode forward into the room, full of elaborate chests and sealed jars and statues and a very large sarcophagus in the center.

“A demigod’s tomb,” Geoff said, pointing at the paintings on the walls. They depicted images of a young woman slaying monsters with an impressive arsenal of weapons. The painting at the far end of the tomb was of the woman standing in front of a large figure with a jackal’s head. Awsten couldn’t remember the name of that god. He took a few tentative steps into the tomb, holding his sword higher as the light became bright enough to illuminate the room.

“We shouldn’t be in here,” he said. “There’s gotta be, like… traps and shit.”

Otto froze, inches away from picking something off a table on the right side of the room.

“You’re right…” he said.

“Whoa!” Geoff said, from the left side of the room.

Awsten whirled around. Geoff was holding some kind of weapon. A sickle, but with a length of chain attached to it. Awsten sighed in exasperation.

“Put that thing down, Geoff, you’re going to hurt yourself,” he said.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s cursed,” Geoff said. “And I need a weapon, right? To help fight monsters.”

Awsten walks over to Geoff and tries to take the sickle thing out of his hands. Geoff holds it out of Awsten’s reach.

“Yeah, you need a weapon, but not something out of an Egyptian demigod’s tomb!” he hissed, trying and failing to grab the thing. “You won’t know how to use it anyway!”

“I can learn!” Geoff said. “I like this thing, I want to try!”

“You’re stealing!”

“I’ll leave a gift in return!” Geoff said. He jumped back out of Awsten’s flailing arms and reached into his pocket. “Uh… whoever’s tomb this is, I’m leaving something of mine. To repay you for this.”

“Please don’t curse us,” Jawn said.

Geoff laid something down on the table where he took the sickle weapon. Awsten leaned close to look at it. It was a piece of ebony wood carved into the shape of a flower.

“That was a gift from my dad,” Geoff said. “It gives you peaceful dreams. Uh, please accept it. And thank you for the cool weapon.”

Awsten stared at the carved flower for a moment. “I didn’t know your dad gave you that,” he said. He honestly didn’t know Hypnos had given Geoff anything besides cryptic messages and a few rare visions.

“Yeah, uh,” Geoff said. “I’ve had it for a while. I don’t even think about it sometimes. But… yeah. That should be a good exchange, right?”

Awsten didn’t really know what to say after that. They left the tomb, shutting the doors behind them. Awsten returned his sword to his side and stood in the morning sun for a minute, still distracted by the fact that Geoff would give up a gift from his dad for some weapon he probably wouldn’t even be able to wield. He felt bad thinking Geoff was an idiot for doing that, but… well, Awsten could never see himself giving up his sword for anything.

Then he blinked. He looked up at the sky, then at the landscape around them.

“Fuck!”

“What?” Otto said.

“I can’t make any more rainbow bridges now,” Awsten said. He waved his arm up at the sun, which had risen in the sky while they were in the tomb.

“That’s alright,” Jawn said. “We should stop soon anyway. There’s a town like a mile away.”

Awsten frowned and looked at Jawn in confusion. “How do you know—?”

Jawn held up a map, which he turned around for Awsten to see. There was a small black dot labeled as TOMB, and a town relatively close to it. And a big black X in another spot on the map.

“Where did you get that?” Otto asked.

“From the tomb,” Jawn said.

Awsten stared at Jawn in shock for a moment. “WHAT? WHY? YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE SMART ONE!”

Jawn held the map close to his chest. “It was lying open on a table!”

“So you took it?” Awsten said.

“I thought it could help us a bit!” Jawn said. He turned the map towards them again. “Look, there’s this thing marked right here which we could check out; it won’t even take that long—”

Awsten groaned, long and loud. “We’re on a quest here! What about Geoff’s ghost town?” He looked to Geoff, who was attempting to swing the chain on his new weapon. Otto shrugged with a half smile on his face.

“Hey, I’m up for stopping at this town at least,” he said. “I—”

Before Otto could finish his second statement, the world around them was filled by a very loud roar. Awsten’s heart leapt and he spun around in a wide circle, looking for the monster responsible for the noise. He found it quickly enough. On the roof of the bunker, there sat a dragon, huge and gray against the clear blue sky.

Awsten drew his sword again, but he felt pitifully unmatched. There was no way he and Otto could beat that thing. They could hold it back, let Jawn and Geoff run for cover, and—

“AAAAAAA!” Geoff yelled, running past Awsten and swinging his stupid fucking weapon in front of him. The blade of the sickle sank into the ground and Geoff tripped onto his face from the abrupt halt in momentum.

“Stay back, Geoff!” Awsten said. He ran a short distance from Geoff and pointed the tip of his sword at the dragon. The burst of light flashing off the sword caught the dragon’s attention and it crouched on the bunker, eyes focused on Awsten.

“Jawn!” Otto yelled from somewhere behind Awsten. Jawn’s spear flew into view, striking the dragon on its neck. As the spear fell back to the ground, the dragon roared again and rose up to a terrifying height, opening its mouth to show off dozens of huge yellow teeth.

Fuck.

“Jawn, how close is that town?” Awsten said, gripping his sword but gaining no assurance from it.

“A mile!”

Fuck again.

“How fast can you run a mile?”

“What?” Jawn and Geoff said at the same time.

Awsten opened his mouth to explain, but the dragon suddenly jumped down from the roof of the tomb. He gathered as much confidence as he could and charged at the dragon. Once again, the dragon stopped to focus on the sword.

An idea struck Awsten. “Otto, you know a dragon’s weak spots?”

“In theory?” Otto said.

“Perfect, get ready!” Awsten swung the sword, feeding power through it. The sword glowed bright white and a huge arc of light came out of the swinging motion, hitting the dragon right in the face instantly. The dragon snarled, shaking its head and blinking its eyes as it stomped back and forth in disorientation.

“OTTO!” Awsten shouted.

“YEAH, I GOT IT!” Otto yelled back. He ran for the dragon’s underside, along with Jawn, to Awsten’s surprise. Jawn grabbed his spear from off the ground and stabbed up at a soft spot on the dragon’s belly. Otto slashed at another spot on the dragon’s stomach, and the dragon roared in pain, stomping around even more.

Jawn and Otto both dashed out of the way of the dragon’s huge legs. Awsten raised his sword again, preparing to either hit the dragon with another blinding attack or to charge at it.

But he didn’t need to do either. The dragon turned and leapt up into the sky, flying a bit sloppily away.

Awsten slowly lowered his sword. “Is that it?” he said.

Jawn and Otto both hurried back to him. Awsten turned just in time to see Geoff pull his sickle out of the ground with a heave.

“That thing is going to be useless,” Awsten said.

“I’ll learn how to use it!” Geoff said. “It’s got this balance to it! I just gotta figure that out!”

“Hey, uh, we should probably get moving,” Otto said, nudging Awsten’s side. “I don’t think that dragon is gone for good. I’m all for going to that town.”

“And this spot?” Jawn said, taking the map out of his bag.

Awsten sighed. “We don’t have time to be following every mysterious map we find, Jawn.”

“When have we ever found a cool map like this?” Jawn said. “Come on, it’s really close by. It’ll just be a short side trip, I promise.”


	5. If You Die In A Dream...

This wasn’t even supposed to be a part of their quest. Literally the only reason they were in this monster snake den was because Jawn fucking Rocha fell straight into a hole in the ground while following that map—which was probably a fake. They should have left it at that creepy old demigod tomb where they found it. Every single thing from that tomb had brought them nothing but trouble. First Geoff’s dumb sickle thing, then the ring that literally was a beacon for the dragon that they barely escaped, and now this.

Awsten ducked as one of the giant snake monsters lashed out at his head again. He spun and swung at the snake’s body, but his sword just glanced harmlessly off the armored scales.

“Look out!” Otto yelled behind him, pulling Awsten out of the way as a second snake monster snapped at the place where Awsten was just standing. Awsten tumbled backwards, falling to the ground and flinching as the giant snake jaws snapped shut. Otto punched at the snake, with his knife held tightly in his fist, and actually left a scrape on the side of the snake’s face. Awsten blinked in surprise.

Then someone was pulling him to his feet. Geoff. Jawn was right beside him, still covered in dust and spider webs. The four of them formed a protective circle, their backs to each other. The three giant snakes coiled around them, just out of range of their weapons.

Awsten’s grip tightened on his sword. Maybe he could try and get their attention while Jawn attacked with his spear? It was the best he could think of. There wasn’t enough water in this part of the cave to make a rainbow to escape, so they had to at least fight their way back to the entrance.

“I’ve got this,” Geoff said, interrupting Awsten’s internal planning.

“What?” Awsten said. “No, it’s okay, I’ve got a plan—”

To Awsten’s side, Geoff held out his stupid chain sickle and started spinning the blade around like a helicopter in front of him.

“Watch it!” Jawn said.

“Put that fucking thing away,” Awsten hissed. “This isn’t the time to play around with your—”

“No, look!” Geoff threw the sickle out towards one of the snake heads. Rather than hitting the snake, however, it hit the ceiling, knocking loose a rock that fell right onto Otto’s head. Otto crumpled to the ground immediately.

“YOU IDIOT!” Awsten yelled. But before he could yell anything else, the snake that Geoff had been aiming at snapped its head forwards, biting at Awsten. Awsten gritted his teeth and swung hard as it approached, knocking it aside before it could rip his fucking arm off. The snake’s evil looking eyes locked onto Otto and it tried biting at him instead. Awsten moved to stand over Otto, swinging his sword again and again.

But.

There were still two other snakes.

Awsten hadn’t exactly forgotten, but it wasn’t at the top of his mind as he tried to beat the snake back because Otto was lying helpless on the ground—hopefully just unconscious.

But boy oh boy, he sure remembered that quickly when he heard a soft grunt behind him and suddenly he was knocked over and pinned by the heavy coils of one of the snakes.

“Fuck,” Awsten gasped, struggling to get air back into his lungs. His sword had gotten knocked out of his hands and he reached for it in a panic. Then there was a heavy blow on the side of his head and everything went dark.

~~~~~

Otto came to with an awful ache on top of his head. He squeezed his eyes shut as he gingerly touched what turned out to be a painful bump. Fuck, it hurt like hell. Otto groaned and pushed himself up, opening his eyes to look around at what had happened. Wasn’t he… doing something? Something about the quest?

At first, he thought he was stuck in some kind of fucked up lucid dream or vision from the gods. That couldn’t possibly be what it looked like.

Then he reached out and touched it and— yeah that was an actual rib bone. It had to be at least twenty feet tall and a foot thick. And there were dozens of them surrounding him—and Awsten and Geoff and Jawn—like a giant cage.

A fucking rib cage. Otto would have laughed at the visual pun if his head didn’t hurt so bad. Gods. He looked back at his friends. 

Geoff was standing at the far end of the cage, pushing on one of the huge bones. Jawn was sitting beside Awsten, who was lying on the ground. Otto’s eyes widened when he realized there was blood on the side of Awsten’s face.

“Is he okay?” he asked, scooting forward to kneel next to Awsten.

“He’s still breathing,” Jawn said. “I can’t do anything to help him. The guy took my stuff.”

Otto’s heart thudded in his chest. “What guy?”

“The demigod who was controlling the snakes,” Jawn said. “He took all our shit and had the snakes drop us in here. I don’t know when he’s coming back.”

“Another _demigod_ was controlling those?” Otto repeated. “What the fuck?”

“I mean, I’m guessing he was a demigod,” Jawn said. “Who else could control fucking monster snakes?”

Otto didn’t know. He was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that monsters would willingly obey a demigod. Every experience he had ever had with any monster was anything from ‘this thing wanted to eat him for dinner’ to ‘this one just plain wanted to kill him out of rage against the gods’.

Otto got to his feet. He touched the rib bone again, testing it. As curious as he was about this mystery demigod, he’d rather get the fuck out of here before he came back with his snake monsters. Also, the fact that they were being kept alive couldn’t be a good thing.

“Me and Jawn tried earlier to break it,” Geoff said, still standing slumped at the far side of the cage. “We couldn’t even scratch them. They’re some kind of monster bones.”

“Actually, they’re dragon bones,” came a new voice, older and dripping with scorn and confidence.

Otto whirled around, wincing at the sting it brought to the lump on his head, and saw a man emerging from the darkness, with two giant snake monsters following slowly behind him. Otto’s hands clenched into fists when he saw the guy was carrying Jawn’s bag with all their weapons shoved sloppily into it. So close… but there was no way that guy would get close enough for them to grab back their weapons.

“My name is Lucius,” the man said, stopping a short distance from the cage. “Welcome to the home of my snakes. I must say, I wasn’t expecting four demigods to drop in. Quite a surprise.”

“What do you want?” Otto demanded. He stepped protectively in front of Awsten and Jawn, who were both still on the ground.

Lucius cocked his head. “Hm. I don’t really need to explain myself to a bunch of young demigods, now do I? What I want to do with _you_ … I’m not sure yet. I’ve been thinking about it. You see, my snakes have only ever tasted human flesh. I wonder if demigods will give them more power.”

Otto tensed as the snakes behind Lucius reared up and hissed.

~~~~~

Geoff… had kind of screwed this little side trip up. Not that this was really anybody’s fault except this Lucius guy. But it didn’t help earlier when Geoff kind of accidentally knocked out their best fighter.

He had to do something before anything worse happened. Since Awsten was down, and they were inside a rocky cavern with no dirt, Geoff was the only one who could still use his powers, He doubted he’d be able to get close enough to touch Lucius, so he was going to have to try putting the guy to sleep from a distance.

“Hey!” he yelled, getting Lucius’s attention. “You’re really just gonna feed us to your snakes?”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Lucius said dryly, maintaining eye contact with Geoff in a way that was probably supposed to intimidate Geoff. Geoff shivered but tried to keep his focus. He had the guy’s attention, now he had to concentrate his hypnosis powers. Man, this worked better with some kind of pendulum, but Lucius seemed a bit smarter than the other people Geoff had done this on.

“Hm?” Lucius said challengingly. “Let you go? Leave you here so you can call your godly parents to come and save you?”

“Uh…” Geoff said. 

“Then again,” Lucius said, moving a step closer to Geoff. “You four can’t be all that powerful, can you? Probably the children of minor gods. I know humans are no match for my snakes, but four armed demigods can’t even leave a scratch on them? Pathetic.”

Geoff narrowed his eyes. Suddenly a surge of energy rushed through him and Lucius blinked and fell to his knees.

“What are you doing?” he said, his voice slower from the sudden drowsiness.

Geoff pressed himself between the bars of the cage, pouring as much of his power at Lucius as possible. _Come on dad,_ he thought, _give me just a bit more, please._ Lucius blinked slowly at Geoff, even as he sank lower to the ground.

“Well,” he said with a tired-sounding chuckle. “Seems I’ve underestimated you… but it’s no matter. Finish them…”

That didn’t sound good.

Lucius was finally lying down on the floor, but the two snakes that had been waiting in the shadows at the opposite end of the cavern were moving towards them now. Geoff backed away nervously. His powers didn’t work that well on monsters, and their weapons were still too far away for them to reach.

“GEOFF, GET DOWN!” Jawn yelled.

Geoff turned around. Jawn was still kneeling on the ground next to Awsten, but Awsten was sitting up. He was awake! He was alright! His face was still slowly dripping blood, and he was stretching out one bloodstained hand in the direction of the snakes.

“Move,” Awsten croaked.

Oh shit. Geoff threw himself out of the way and a split second later, a rainbow burst out from the blood smeared on Awsten’s hand. It shattered through the dragon rib bones and sliced right through one of the snakes, which promptly burst into dust.

“Fuckin’ got it,” Awsten said hoarsely, and then collapsed into Jawn’s arms, unconscious again.

Geoff and Otto both raced through the opening in the cage. Otto grabbed his knife and immediately charged at the other giant snake. Geoff grabbed his sickle in one hand, slung Jawn’s bag over his shoulder, and then took Awsten’s sword in his other hand. He looked back to see Jawn emerging from the broken cage, carrying Awsten in his arms.

“We’ve gotta get out of here before more of those snakes show up,” Jawn said.

How’re we going to do that?” Geoff said.

Jawn hefted Awsten in his arms. “Go back the way we came,” he said grimly.

~~~~~

Jawn was moving through the tunnels as fast as he could, but having to carry Awsten every step of the way was definitely slowing him down. At least they were still only dealing with the one snake. Otto had actually injured it back at that big cavern, but that just meant it was even more pissed at them. It kept hissing and spitting angrily as it chased after them.

Geoff, who had been leading the way back, finally stopped and looked straight upwards. “This is it, I’m pretty sure,” he said.

Jawn stood next to him and looked up. Fuck, it sure was the same spot. He could see the little bastard spiders peering down at him. He really didn’t want to have to squeeze through that spidery little hellhole again, but it was preferable to being eaten by a giant fucking snake.

First, they had to deal with the snake though.

Jawn carefully set Awsten down so he was leaning against the tunnel wall. He went over to Geoff, grabbed his collapsible spear out of his bag, and then turned to the skirmish happening behind them. Otto was doing his best, but he couldn’t hold off the snake forever.

Jawn eyed the snake. It was a bit far, but he’d hit farther targets before. He extended his spear into a javelin length, and then got into position. He breathed in carefully, remembering all his practice and training, and then threw his weapon with as much strength as he could.

The javelin-spear soared through the air in a perfect arc towards the snake. It looked like it would be perfect—

Then the snake lashed down at Otto and, instead of landing in the snake’s heart, it thudded straight into the base of its skull. The snake opened its mouth wide and thrashed around in fury. It hissed and slammed into the walls of the tunnel. Dirt rained down from above from the force of each impact, and Jawn covered his head, remembering the rock from earlier.

Otto was running back towards them. “Come on!” he yelled.

Jawn froze. What? What the hell was going on? Did… did Otto think he had an actual plan for climbing back up through that hole? Because he didn’t.

Otto reached Jawn, Geoff, and Awsten. Panting, he looked up at the hole in the roof. “MOM!” he shouted.

And… nothing.

More dirt fell as the snake slammed its huge coils against the walls of the tunnel and started slithering towards them with murder in its eyes. Fuck, fuck, fuck, they were so fucked. Jawn put himself between the approaching snake and Awsten. This couldn’t be the end.

All of a sudden, thick roots dropping down from the ceiling of the tunnel blocked his vision of the snake. Jawn looked up again, and was amazed to see that the hole was bigger now, and lined with lumpy tree roots, with plenty of handholds to grasp. It took him a second to comprehend that.

Then he got moving quickly. He maneuvered Awsten onto his back, and reached for the first handhold with one hand. But as he did, the thick root curled gently around the two of them and pulled them up through the hole. Oh fuck, this was so much better. Jawn breathed a deep sigh of relief, even as more spiderwebs managed to cling to his clothes and hair on the way up.

The roots deposited him, Awsten, Geoff, and Otto all on the grass above, then moved to cover the hole just as Jawn heard the snake’s angry hissing again.

Jawn was shaking with adrenaline. He tilted back his face and tried to relax, letting the sun’s rays bring him back down. Fuck. That was so fucking close.

“We did it,” Otto said, reaching over to slap Jawn on the shoulder.

Jawn grinned. They fucking did it. It took all of them, plus a little help from Otto’s mom, but they did it. For the first time, he actually felt like a real hero. Even if he’d just lost his cool spear. And they didn’t actually defeat Lucius… but he couldn’t feel too bad about that. They were all alive. They were all together.

And they weren’t taking any more fucking side trips on this damn quest.

It was several hours before Awsten woke up. In the mean time, they’d moved to set up a campsite as far away from the snake hole as they could get. Jawn had no idea how long Lucius would be asleep, but he hoped it would be long enough for them to put plenty of distance between him and them.

As Awsten began to stir, Jawn crouched over him. He could feel both Otto and Geoff hovering behind him.

Awsten’s eyes peeled open and he lifted a shaky hand. “Ugh,” he mumbled. “Wh—”

“Awsten!” Jawn said excitedly, reaching out to grab Awsten’s hand. “We got out! Your fucking laser beam saved us!”

“Nice,” Awsten managed a feeble smile.

“We did it!” Geoff exclaimed, pushing past Jawn to wrap his arms happily around Awsten.

“Wait—” Jawn said, but it was already too late. Awsten was asleep again. “Geoff, no!”

“Oh… sorry,” Geoff said, reluctantly letting go of Awsten. “Uh… he could probably use the extra rest though, right?”

Gods, this quest was going to take forever.


End file.
